Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff to visit Pease, shipyard

By GRETYL MACALASTERUnion Leader Correspondent

PORTSMOUTH — On Monday, New Hampshire’s Congressional delegation will welcome to the state General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation‘s highest ranking military officer.Dempsey will visit both the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the Pease Air National Guard base with Senators Kelly Ayotte, R-NH and Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and Representatives Carol Shea-Porter, D-NH and Annie Kuster, D-NH, according to preliminary information released by the delegation.Pease was recently chosen to be the first national guard base to house the next generation refueling tanker, the KC-46A.The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard employs more than 4,000 civilian workers responsible for the overhaul and maintenance of the nation’s nuclear submarines.Dempsey and the delegation will also participate in a roundtable meeting with New Hampshire defense suppliers and will receive a briefing on the New Hampshire National Guard’s Deployment Cycle Support Program.“We are honored that General Dempsey has accepted our invitation to visit New Hampshire and meet with officials at the shipyard and Pease, and with local defense suppliers,” the delegation said in a statement. “This visit is an important opportunity for him to learn more about the tremendous contributions that New Hampshire citizens make to our national security, and we look forward to welcoming him to our state.”Dempsey was recently re-nominated by President Barack Obama to serve a second two-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.The Senate Armed Services Committee, on which both Ayotte and Shaheen sit, will hold a hearing on the nomination on July 18.